Zoomorph: The One Man Animal Kingdom (Patreon)

HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!! NRG is excited to end 2023 and start 2024 with a brand new superhero!! Meet Zoomorph, a troubled teen with the ability to transform into 6 different animal-hybrid forms, each with their own natural superpowers!!

ORIGIN

The devastating attack on Ceres City known as “The Call of the Wild” was considered Empress’ greatest shame. In a gambit to make a more open-faced movement to improve humanity, three of the Think Tank’s foremost experts in biophysics launched an attack on Ceres City using genetic mutation bombs, the results of which completely terraformed Ceres City in a literal lush urban jungle and more than two-thirds of its citizens into fauna hybrids. Desperate to save her HomeTown, Empress called in aid from every available superhero on the West Coast to bring order back to Ceres City in the Aftermath. Their efforts were in vain however, as the Think Tank’s perpetrator behind the attack, a silver ape-hybrid calling himself Doctor Simian, had installed countermeasures to insure Ceres City would suffer further if Empress did not retreat. Feeling she already had failed Ceres City enough and not wanted to hurt its people anymore, Empress was forced to leave her home in shame, vowing to return to fix things one day.

But from the Chaos of the aftermath, a new superhero emerged to bring order in Empress’ absence. Calling himself Zoomorph, his real name was Chase Howlette, a somewhat troubled teen living in Ceres City. Although he was sociable and well-liked, his outward gregariousness masked an internal sadness. Chase didn’t see a whole lot of meaning in his life, and he had no desire to do anything beyond his school years. He tried to drown this sense of directionlessness with substances, which helped in the moment but ultimately made the problem worse.  And after a party on a downtown rooftop pool one night, Chase stole a card key and would return to the rooftop to look out on the city and clear his head, insteading finding himself battling thoughts of jumping. That same night the attack on Ceres City happened and Chase was closest to one of the blasts. Such a concoction of mutagens hitting all at once had a unique effect on Chase’s body, granting him many different animal forms. And later having witnessed Empress forced to retreat, something sparked in Chase to reassure Empress that Ceres City still had a hero.

Since that time, Chase has started using these new abilities to keep the peace in a destabilized city where many people have turned into animal hybrids. In doing so he thinks he may finally have found a purpose in life. However, his sense of emptiness still plagues him at times and he still has occasional battles with depression. He masks these with a cheerful facade as he did before, although he’s been putting a serious effort into getting his substance use under control.

Powers/Abilities:

• Able to transform into six different animal forms, each with unique natural “superpowers” that can be applied to battle and rescue.

So yeah, a lot of ground to cover in this one. If you've been with us since the beginning, you'll recognize this idea. But basically Zoomorph will end up taking over Empress' job in Ceres City after it he gets his powers. In case you were wondering why Empress would be leading a team of superheroes all the way down in Vaudeville, California when she was originally all the way up in Ceres City, Oregon, this was the reason why. Empress is going to go through a lot before she ends up becoming a team leader, let's just say that much. But I promise once she starts leading the team things will get better for her.

But yeah, Zoomorph is an idea we've had since the beginning, and naturally we wanted to keep it with our current branding of ideas like Slamazon and American Queen. Zoomorph had a lot of bits and pieces however that really needed to be ironed out before we could debut him, including his different animal forms, his origins, and especially giving him a unique design. Shout Out to our artist Danilo Cassonato for his amazing design on Zoomorph! Definitely looks more like a superhero now!

We're Especially excited to write for Ceres City once it becomes a literal urban jungle (Which we may rename Savanna City to keep in touch with classic Zoomorph lore). Unique and interesting locations are part of what make comics special, and having a literal urban jungle with a shapeshifting superhero is going to be fun to explore!

Anyways, hope you like this new Superhero! Let us know in a comment below.

Zoomorph: The One Man Animal Kingdom © NRG Comics

Art by Danilo Cassonato https://www.deviantart.com/bilcassonato